Ex accuses hedge-funder Cohen of insider trading

Steven Cohen, the hedge fund magnate and contemporary art collector, is being sued by his ex-wife who claims he hid millions of dollars from her. Patricia Cohen, who has been divorced from the SAC Capital boss for two decades, is claiming $300 million. But the former Mrs. Cohen is not only looking for an additional slice of Cohen's $6.4 billion fortune; she claims he engaged in illegal insider trading in the 1980s and then gave SEC investigators the runaround.

This is not a good moment for Cohen - recently ranked by Forbes
magazine as the 36th richest person in America - to be hit with new
allegations, even if they come from an ex-wife with an axe to grind. His $13 billion firm is under scrutiny for links to an expanding
insider-trading case against indicted New York hedge-funder Raj Rajaratnam.

In addition, a former SAC trader, Richard Choo Beng Lee,
is co-operating with investigators looking into the activities of
other SAC traders during the period he was employed by Cohen's firm.

Patricia Cohen says her former husband told her "he had received
information in advance" about General Electric's $6.3 billion
takeover of RCA in 1986. In the days leading up to the takeover announcement, shares of RCA soared by $16 to $63, prompting an SEC inquiry that brought no criminal charges against Cohen or anyone else. Mrs. Cohen's lawsuit goes on to claim the money from the RCA trades went into property and other assets that Cohen allegedly hid from her.

"The lawsuit is about his behaviour and his conduct and we think the allegations in the complaint are well grounded in fact," says Mrs Cohen's lawyer, Paul Batista.

Cohen, who has remarried and lives in one of the largest houses in the financier capital of Greenwich, Connecticut, says his ex's claims are baseless. "These are ludicrous allegations made by a former spouse that are entirely without merit," says a spokesman. "It is disgraceful that a member of the bar would assist her in what can only be considered a transparent attempt to extort money."

These days, Cohen is as famous in art circles as he is in the hedge fund world. He purchased Damien Hirst's pickled shark (above), Marc Quinn's blood head Self and one of the best of Bacon's screaming Popes. In 2006, he was the prospective buyer of Picasso's Le Reve for a world record $139 million; the sale collapsed after its then owner, casino mogul Steve Wynn, put his elbow through it. Not to be dissuaded, Cohen went on to buyer a Willem de Kooning painting, Woman III, for $137.5 million. ·